


The Lighthouse Keeper

by EccentricAuthors



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Hermit, Kylo Ren is one thicc merman, Kylux - Freeform, Lonely Lighthouse AU, M/M, MerMay, MerMay 2019, Seaside AU, tagged explicit for future chapters, tags to update with new content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2020-03-04 22:31:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18822070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EccentricAuthors/pseuds/EccentricAuthors
Summary: “If you sit by the sea for long enough on a misty afternoon, she will share her secrets in exchange for yours.”





	1. The Keeper

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to write a mermay fic.  
> If you like this, please leave a comments or some kudos! I appreciate them a lot.  
> (aka begging for validation. i have no shame.)

Amongst the new and glimmering cities, surrounded by the modernity of the current era, few remnants of what came before still lingered. Those that did were long glossed over and forgotten, the people who inhabited them marked off as non-social and bitter.  
Along the beaches and the coastlines, jagged rocks still butted out into the sea. Ships often wrecked along the unmanaged coasts, wood and people washing up on the sand with no hope of being discovered.  
Along one stretch, a few miles long, there sat an ancient lighthouse. Those who had built it were long gone and forgotten, and the one who lived in it was not recognised. For decades he had watched the sea from the beacon, many years of his responsibility evident in his mannerisms. He had never married, never sired children. The strange old man kept to himself, for the most part.  
Sometimes, children would find him and ask him what he had seen that drew him to the ocean. In response, he gave a knowing smile to break the severe lines of his face and simply said, “If you sit by the sea for long enough on a misty afternoon, she will share her secrets in exchange for yours.”  
The truth was actually simple, a tale from many, many years ago, when he was still young. Often he would watch the people of the sea and know his was out there, wonder what he did now that the merpeople had to recede deeper into the sea to avoid the grasp of greedy humans.

 

The day Armitage Hux fled to the sea was sunny, warm and bright. In truth, it was less of a flee and more of a planned leaving. He never did anything without good reason, this included.  
One morning, he woke early as usual, quietly packed up his life and his cat, and slipped out unnoticed. Getting out was not difficult. The people of his old life assumed his death, none involved enough in his daily life to suspect otherwise.  
And so he came to the old lighthouse.

The lighthouse itself was not the silly red-and-white striped tower that people come to expect. It was tall, the bricks painted a deep blue to match the ocean it guarded. The light turned on the top, casting its beam into the water in the deepening light of the late afternoon. It was autumn on the planet of his choice when he arrived, and the leaves piled up on the walkway to the door.  
The first floor was a tiny apartment, suitable for a single man and his animal. It would do him fine, and he could rent the farmhouse on the property to a family that could use it. It was almost idyllic, the calm exactly what he desired after his strict and tumultuous upbringing.

Hux settled in when a few weeks went by and nobody came looking for him. He was happy to be secluded—after all, he needed nobody but himself and was more than content to leave it that way.  
The time spent by the ocean in the cool darkness of the evening was his favourite. The water glimmered under the faint cast of the moon through the misty clouds, and sometimes he could swear he saw a head break the waves before going back under them.  
One of these nights, as he sat on the pier, the cold water bit his toes and the faint temptation to fall in and see where he would go was particularly strong. He was about to drift into his own thoughts when something soft and cool brushed his toe and he nearly jumped a foot into the air. Hux was about to shine his light into the water and see what had touched him when something to his right spoke out loud, the voice soft and a little bit raspy.  
“Don’t shine that thing on me. It’s bad for my eyes.” It said. After a few moments of blinking and concentrating, he could make out a human shape in the water.

“Why are you swimming? It must be forty degrees out here, you’ll freeze. I knew the people in this town were stupid, but not as remarkably so as to go for a dip in November.” 

The… person? laughed and went back under the water with a splash, and Hux swore he saw the flash of the end of a tail.  
“You know nothing, lighthouse keeper.” This time he was right in front of him. As he spoke, the moon broke free of the clouds and illuminated the creature.

He was pale, with long, dark hair lined with strings of pearls and shells. His eyes were the colour of the seawater on stormy afternoons and it was obvious by the bluish tint of his flesh that he was not human.

“You’re a merman.” Hux said bluntly, not really believing what he was seeing. They were mythological, not real —at least, his education said so.

“Your people would call us that, I suppose.” The man nodded. “For your purposes, yes, I am. My name is Kylo. And before you say we don’t exist.. we used to, across the known galaxy. My people were hunted to near extinction to use in freakshows and as zoo animals.” His voice carried weight and depth in the story. “I wouldn’t have shown myself, but you watch the sea every night. You were going to see us sooner or later.”

Hux was quiet for a moment, taking some time to process what this strange man had just said. All he could manage was an “Across the known galaxy?” In quiet wonder. 

“All across it. Every planet with water, and many planets without have fossils.” Kylo nodded, blinking at the redhead. “And your people destroyed us for your own pleasures.”

“Stop saying that.” Hux wrinkled his nose. “They aren’t my people. They’re my species, and that’s almost all of the connection I have with them. We do not understand one another.”

“Is that why you came here to keep the lighthouse?” 

“Yes.”

Kylo was silent for a moment, then nodded his head a little bit. “I understand. I’m glad it was you, then.”  
Hux furrowed his eyebrows. Why did this man say that? Was the implication there weakness or timidity?

Before he could respond, Kylo laughed. “You don’t have to look so disgusted. It’s because you don’t seem the type to give us away. What would you, the hermit who lives in the lighthouse, have to gain from exposing the merfolk?”

“Ah.” He murmured sheepishly, reaching up and scratching behind his ear. “I suppose that makes sense… No, I won’t give away your secret, Kylo.”

Kylo nodded, glancing over his shoulder. “I have to go. It was nice speaking to you.  
If you want to chat again, come down just before sunset, after the fishermen have left the pier. I’ll be around.”  
Without another word, he turned and vanished beneath the surface. There was a brilliant flash of a rich, deep red at the end of Kylo’s silvery tail, the colour momentarily entrancing the human. 

Hux cast his eyes back up to the moon, breathing in the air for a few more moments before picking up his boots and heading up to the lighthouse to prepare for bed. Maybe he would see Kylo again tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TROS broke me so I’m resuming this

With tomorrow came a storm, the lightning flashing in the sky and thunder rolling violently over the sea and the coast. It was days like this where Armitage was his most useful.  
He woke as usual at exactly 05:00. By 05:30, he had bathed and was preparing his breakfast. When he was a military man, the General, he wouldn't waste the precious forty five minutes on real food— He’d had a habit of downing a ration bar and hitting a stim. He’d liked to be on his bridge early, before the Alpha shift.  
He didn’t miss it.   
At 06:15, he went to check his mail. If needed, he paid his bills, and answered any necessary correspondence. He rarely talked to anyone anymore, aside from his tenants. Sometimes, Millicent would leave a dead mouse on the welcome mat, which was unceremoniously tossed into the bushes.  
And then he fetched a book, climbed the spiralling staircase, and made his way to the beacon, where he sat on an old, cast-iron bench, read, and waited for potential messages from ships.   
On stormy days like these, he’d often get calls asking him to confirm the position of the lighthouse. He always did, using a false accent. He did not want to be found.  
There he stayed, until the sun went down enough that the clouds darkened and the ocean was inky, white capped darkness.  
He’d head downstairs, make his dinner, and eat it while watching the ocean.  
Today was different.  
He manned the lighthouse beacon until the early evening, at which point he rose with a sigh and went downstairs.  
His keys went in his pocket, and his rain boots went on. His raincoat followed, tightened at the wrists and around the neck. He didn’t love getting wet, not in storms.  
Hux walked down to the pier, settling on the edge as he had the night before and gazing into the ocean as it grew dark. Kylo might not come tonight, he knew that. The storm was probably dangerous for him.   
It wasn’t long, however, until he saw a greenish light coming up to the surface. It was some sort of orb, giving off a glow the colour of the seafoam in springtime.   
“You came.” Kylo sounded surprised, but not unhappy. “I thought you wouldn’t, while it was raining.”  
“I wasn’t planning to miss out on the opportunity to speak to a Mer. I found a book on my shelf today about the history of your species. I’d apologise on our behalf for the mass imprisonment of Mers, but I don’t believe that would mean very much.”   
“You believe correctly.” Kylo nodded. “You don’t carry that responsibility. Don’t shoulder that burden for us.”   
For Hux, it wasn’t that. To him, it was meaningless. He had not participated in their capture or their slaughter. It wasn’t his to apologise for.  
“We haven’t had any shipwrecks recently. Thanks to you.” Kylo said softly, his voice barely audible over the waves. “Some of us are struck by sinking wreckage. We’ve lost many to the pull of the rubble. My mother told me to give you our thanks.”  
“I’m just doing my job.” Hux shrugged.   
“This wasn’t always your job.” Kylo cocked his head. Despite the constant soak of the saltwater, his hair looked soft, maybe even silky. “You were something else, before. A man of structure. Power.”   
“I left that life behind for this one. It was one of the best decisions I’ve yet made.” Armitage knew he was justified in his reasoning. It had technically been a deserting, but he had set it up so that he would not necessarily be missed. “I no longer craved what the position gave to me. I didn’t desire it. So I left.”   
Ren nodded, but did not say anything else about it. He reached up and set the glowing orb on the pier, next to Hux’s thigh.   
“When you come down here, if I don’t come up, drop this in. If I see it, I’ll come get it and bring it back to you. Then we can talk.”   
“You’ve given me something with which I may summon you.” Hux picked up the smooth ball, rolling it in his hands.  
“I’ve given you an item you can use to call me, so that we can speak when you wish to. If there is ever trouble, fling it as hard as you can. I’ll know you can’t go that far on your own, and I will tell my family to leave.”  
Hux found himself a little disgruntled when Ren mentioned his family. Was he married? Did he have children? He had seen the man swimming with a girl, who had long brown hair and a silvery white tail. Maybe they were…  
“My family being my parents and I.” Kylo followed up. “I have too much interest in humans for others of my own to find me… compatible.”  
Armitage nodded, sighing and finally standing, tucking the orb into his pocket. It glowed through the waterproof fabric. “I ought to head up. I’ll speak with you again soon.”  
Kylo nodded slowly, waving a goodbye before he disappeared once more beneath the waves.  
Hux returned home deep in thought, placing the orb on his bed table and laying on his side so that he could watch it. Mers were funny folk. They were all usually fairly snarky. Most were funny in the literal way.   
Those thoughts followed Hux into sleep, and he dreamed about the dark haired Mer with the crimson streaked tail.


End file.
